The 2019 Device Lineup

My bet is that Apple will go all in on wireless and remove the charging port altogether before migrating it from Lightning to USB-C. Including a "Lightning to USB-C" charging cable and USB-C power brick in the box will likely be a temporary stop-gap measure on the road to this objective.

OAW

This would be Job's final endgame...no holes in the phone, whatsoever. 27 radios for AirPods, ARPods, Power, etc. Heck, it might be a stepping stone to no pesky Gorilla Glass whatsoever if the UI is moved off phone.

My bet is that Apple will go all in on wireless and remove the charging port altogether before migrating it from Lightning to USB-C. Including a "Lightning to USB-C" charging cable and USB-C power brick in the box will likely be a temporary stop-gap measure on the road to this objective.

OAW

This would be Job's final endgame...no holes in the phone, whatsoever. 27 radios for AirPods, ARPods, Power, etc. Heck, it might be a stepping stone to no pesky Gorilla Glass whatsoever if the UI is moved off phone.

Surely endgame is something which interacts directly with your brain (wirelessly), and has some unbelievably awesome fractal shape which fits the human hand perfectly but can also be worn as a head piece and goes with any type of clothing?

I can see making the Pro line USB-C but there's no need to lock users out of their existing Lightning infrastructure just to use a non-proprietary connector. Let's be honest, regardless of how proprietary it is, there's a ton of people making them and a ton of devices out there. Breaking that by requiring an adaptor is stupid.

.... like the headphone jack?

We need a clean break for a superior system, like we did with the 30-pin connector. The connector itself might be better with Lightning, but you get higher quality video and faster data transfer speeds with USB-C. Lightning is still stuck at USB2 speeds which is insulting when we have 512 GB iPhones. Plus the ability to charge using the same chargers as all your other devices, and using the same cables as everyone else. If there was ever a reason to show some courage by making a breaking change in order to ditch legacy junk, this is it. Not the headphone jack.

The number of people who plug their iPhone into a computer is vanishingly small to begin with, and the subset of those who would care/notice faster transfer speeds is smaller still. It would be nice to have, of course, but just impacting such a small percentage of the iPhone user base (and I say this as someone who has a 512GB iPhone that is more than 400GB filled).

I'm just saying that in this instance USB-C brings nothing to the table vs Lightning but that. And that's just not worth the disruption that would be caused to the third-party Lightning accessory ecosystem.

"That" is a pretty big deal, IMO. I don't want to carry around just a single different cable when all my other equipment and all my family's equipment and most of my friends/colleagues' equipment uses something else. I can buy a USB-C cable anywhere if I'm stuck somewhere without the ability to charge. The dollar store. The supermarket. The gas station. The airport. The train station. A USB-C to Lightning cable would be a specialty item initially.

I already live with a million dongles, one more dongle to get your Lightning accessories to work with your USB-C iPhone won't hurt. We've already been through this with the transition from 30-pin to Lightning, and we all survived.

Are USB-C cables that ubiquitous? I can find Micro-USB easiest, followed very closely by Lightning, and then everything else is a hunt. The vision of a single-cable world is nice and highly desirable, but it'll be a long time before I can personally ditch Micro-USB, and I own no portable devices that use USB-C yet. Lightning covers almost all of my portable items, and Micro-USB the rest. I have a little zip pouch with all of my charging accoutrements that I grab to go with me every time I travel, and dropping a single cable from that is nice but not really impactful.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

A small number? I think you're kidding yourself.

Plus this would happen when people are already becoming annoyed at the iPhone, when sales are down and when the differentiation with Android is becoming smaller. This would aggravate all those problems. Apple can get away doing it with expensive devices meant for pros. Let's be honest few iPad users need the Pro line. However doing it on the iPhone would be a disaster.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

I'm all for Apple moving ahead when it makes sense to move ahead, but let's not kid ourselves: the Internet angst is going to be massive.

The 30-pin ecosystem was much more ubiquitous when Apple nuked it than Lightning is now, and they survived that.

*Everyone* had a 30-pin speaker dock of one kind or another. I can't remember ever seeing a Lightning speaker dock in the wild - all those devices are Bluetooth now.

Umm. Really? I think you have it backwards. The market was much smaller and there weren't nearly as many peripherals in the iPhone 3 or 4 days as compared to now. Bluetooth is popular, but there are a ton of alarm clocks and radios with lightning connectors (primarily for charging). Most of the suck mind you, but that's a different discussion. Further for other types of peripherals there's far, far more now than back in the 3 & 4 days. You have external cameras of various sorts, you have health equipment, etc. But the main complaint will be for charging.

More to the point, there were clear advantages of the lightning port over the 30 pin port. The latter collected a ton of gunk and limited the weight/thinness of the device. I think that unarguably as a connector the lightning is at best on par with USB-C and I'd argue better. The only thing USB-C brings is not being proprietary. But given that lightning cables are everywhere, that's not a big argument. It's arguably easier to find lighting connectors while on the road than USB-C.

I completely get wanting some iPads to have USB-C if they're being used more like a laptop. I don't get at all this desire to move to USB-C for everything else.

MacBreak Weekly podcast alluded to the 16-inch MacBook Pro rumors, including speculation that it would start at $3000.

But it could have FaceID and faster processors.

Wow. I didn't even know MacBreak Weekly was still around. I'm skeptical it'll start at $3000 though. It's possible if it makes use of a discrete GPU as an option but I can't see it starting at that price. That'd a full $800 higher than the current 15" base.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

I'm all for Apple moving ahead when it makes sense to move ahead, but let's not kid ourselves: the Internet angst is going to be massive.

Yeah it’ll be a shitstorm...so the phones have to be awesome to make up for it. Not sure what that would entail at this point cause there’s only so much low hanging fruit left, maybe a new design language would do the trick? (Or in my case, slightly smaller phone!)

Otherwise y’all forgetting about the non iPhone users, USB-C would be one less barrier to switching. Not a huge deal, but it’s something. (Makes it easier to switch away too...but if they’re depending on the port as a differentiator to lock people in, it’d mean they have bigger issues to deal with)

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

I'm all for Apple moving ahead when it makes sense to move ahead, but let's not kid ourselves: the Internet angst is going to be massive.

I remember. It had about as much impact as any other controversial decision or issue. Remember Antennagate, battery throttling, removing the headphone jack, Replacing Touch ID with Face ID, none of them mattered. I think the phrase “internet angst” sums it up well.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

I'm all for Apple moving ahead when it makes sense to move ahead, but let's not kid ourselves: the Internet angst is going to be massive.

I remember. It had about as much impact as any other controversial decision or issue. Remember Antennagate, battery throttling, removing the headphone jack, Replacing Touch ID with Face ID, none of them mattered. I think the phrase “internet angst” sums it up well.

Those were all definitely tempest in a teacup internet angst. The 30pin - > Lightning hit "normal" people and there was a lot of complaining.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

I'm all for Apple moving ahead when it makes sense to move ahead, but let's not kid ourselves: the Internet angst is going to be massive.

Yeah it’ll be a shitstorm...so the phones have to be awesome to make up for it. Not sure what that would entail at this point cause there’s only so much low hanging fruit left, maybe a new design language would do the trick? (Or in my case, slightly smaller phone!)

Otherwise y’all forgetting about the non iPhone users, USB-C would be one less barrier to switching. Not a huge deal, but it’s something. (Makes it easier to switch away too...but if they’re depending on the port as a differentiator to lock people in, it’d mean they have bigger issues to deal with)

It’s not clear to me whether ANY port will replace lightning. While the long tail of lightning accessories may be quite long, my personal experience is that I see fewer and fewer people use them. Music is Bluetooth. I never see people connecting SD cart readers or anything like that. And I’ve never once seen a lightning to video out in the wild. If Apple could get their wireless charging UX to something like what they have for the Apple Watch I could see them doing away with the port altogether.

The iPad Pro is a different story as it has a Pro focus. So I don’t really see any overwhelming pressure towards USB-C.

Otherwise y’all forgetting about the non iPhone users, USB-C would be one less barrier to switching. Not a huge deal, but it’s something. (Makes it easier to switch away too...but if they’re depending on the port as a differentiator to lock people in, it’d mean they have bigger issues to deal with)

By and large I think people who don't get iPhones are either very price conscious or else value "open" (whatever that means). In Asia and Africa it's different (don't know about Latin America) so maybe that switching would matter more there. In Europe, Australia, Canada and the US I'd imagine switchers is a bigger issue and Lightning probably, like iCloud use, makes it harder to switch out.

Now I think a strong case can be made that Apple needs a cheaper iPhone or needs significant new features. I also think Apple's trying to do services but in such a way that the line between services and device blurs. (iCloud storage being the obvious example) That all seems somewhat more significant than the Lightning connector. I see it as a minor issue but one that would really irritate people at a time when iPhone sales are already slipping. Apple could get away with the 30 pin removal simply because the iPhone 5 was such a compelling device with significant improvements in speed and functionality over what most people already had. Ditto the 5s which had TouchID. I don't think that's apt to be the case with the next few phones. The last iteration was both more expensive and offered few features. Edge to edge screens is nice, but not that significant an improvement - the cameras were better, but nothing compared to how cameras were iterating with the 5 and 5s.

Wow. I didn't even know MacBreak Weekly was still around. I'm skeptical it'll start at $3000 though. It's possible if it makes use of a discrete GPU as an option but I can't see it starting at that price. That'd a full $800 higher than the current 15" base.

Wow. I didn't even know MacBreak Weekly was still around. I'm skeptical it'll start at $3000 though. It's possible if it makes use of a discrete GPU as an option but I can't see it starting at that price. That'd a full $800 higher than the current 15" base.

Unless it has OLED or some other unusual display technology.

This is also Apple, so they may do $3,000 and up just cause they can.

It seems as though other OEMs are starting to accelerate their use of OLED in laptops so at this point they’re starting to move from bleeding edge to cutting edge... It would seem timely for Apple to adopt OLED now, especially now that dark mode has had a year to mature so they can get the battery savings of OLED + dark mode.

Wow. I didn't even know MacBreak Weekly was still around. I'm skeptical it'll start at $3000 though. It's possible if it makes use of a discrete GPU as an option but I can't see it starting at that price. That'd a full $800 higher than the current 15" base.

Unless it has OLED or some other unusual display technology.

This is also Apple, so they may do $3,000 and up just cause they can.

The 17-inch was $2,800. I think this is just Apple separating the true professionals, those whose work and time is worth more than the cost of Apple products, from the prosumers and enthusiasts.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

I'm all for Apple moving ahead when it makes sense to move ahead, but let's not kid ourselves: the Internet angst is going to be massive.

I remember. It had about as much impact as any other controversial decision or issue. Remember Antennagate, battery throttling, removing the headphone jack, Replacing Touch ID with Face ID, none of them mattered. I think the phrase “internet angst” sums it up well.

Those were all definitely tempest in a teacup internet angst. The 30pin - > Lightning hit "normal" people and there was a lot of complaining.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

I'm all for Apple moving ahead when it makes sense to move ahead, but let's not kid ourselves: the Internet angst is going to be massive.

I remember. It had about as much impact as any other controversial decision or issue. Remember Antennagate, battery throttling, removing the headphone jack, Replacing Touch ID with Face ID, none of them mattered. I think the phrase “internet angst” sums it up well.

While I will be the first to argue that internet angst is almost always incredibly overblown and melodramatic, it's also difficult to argue that it has no effect. All of those other brouhahas you mention have added to the collective conventional wisdom (in some corners) that one of Apple's main strategies is to build products with built-in obsolescence in order to force its customers to buy new products. Though difficult to measure, it almost certainly has some effect on Apple's sales and customer perception, so it's not nothing. While I can see some logic in switching from Lightning to USB-C, I'm not entirely sold on the notion that it really does anything for Apple that makes the transition and inevitable caterwauling worth it.

I think lightning to USB-c would probably go smoother than 30-pin to lightning, because there's already a big ecosystem of USB-c cables (including ones cheaper than Apple makes) and people potentially already have some in house.

However.... two things give me pause:

1. Logistics: I assume the current lightning installed base is WAY larger than 30-pin ever was even at it's peak2. Labelling and compatibility: If not every USB-c cable works properly to charge an iDevice, then things will get nasty. That didn't happen with lightning because it's so well locked down by Apple. Similarly once people are starting to shop for USB-c cables which may not actually be branded as iPhone compatible, confusion will set in for all but the tech savvy.

Personally I think Lightning is fine and see no reason to migrate to USB-c, but then I have a whole bunch of iDevices all with Lightning and I don't yet own a USB-c laptop or USB-c monitor. I can see how that would influence your thoughts on this.

Regarding past design decisions costing sales, I'd go farther and say most decisions Apple makes cost them some small number of sales, but that is an accepted part of the company's design philosophy. However, that design philosophy has made them the most influential personal technology company on the planet, arguably one of the most influential product companies in history.

Apple drives development ruthlessly into the future as they see it, hard to believe the Lightning port will be an exception to that when the audio jack was not. "Nothing is Sacred" is probably be written in blood above the door to the design lab in the spaceship.

The 17-inch was $2,800. I think this is just Apple separating the true professionals, those whose work and time is worth more than the cost of Apple products, from the prosumers and enthusiasts.

Yeh.

I dislike the ergonomics of laptops and resisted buying one for a long time but a job rescheduling meant buying one to work on it while I was on holiday or losing the job. My MBP 17” cost over £3,000 but the job paid for it and a portable LaCie Firewire 800 raid drive. From then on they were used on everything I worked on for a couple of years. The admittedly high looking price compared to the amount of money that went through them made the former inconsequential.

I find it difficult to believe Apple is going to have some USB-C devices and some Lightning devices. A lot of problems are solved, admittedly for Apple, if the company standardizes on USB-C. It's cheaper for Apple. It's one less complaint Apple has to deal with from the EU. It's easier for customers going forward to have only one cable type—customer sat! Sure, a small number of longtime customers will be unhappy, but Apple has a long and cherished history of angering their most loyal consumers.

Personally, I'm avoiding buying any devices without USB-C.

Small number? You clearly don't remember the shitstorm when they switched to Lightning from the 30-pin adapter.

That's kind of the point. After the voices of a million Lightning fans cry out in terror, they will quickly be silenced. Nobody today would want to go back to 30 pin.

2. Labelling and compatibility: If not every USB-c cable works properly to charge an iDevice, then things will get nasty. That didn't happen with lightning because it's so well locked down by Apple.

It absolutely did happen with Apple. With iOS 7 they killed support for non-MFi charging cables. A cable that would charge your phone on iOS 6 wouldn't charge it anymore on iOS 7. It was a big fat annoying deal at the time. That was the death of the $1 Lightning cable because a cable isn't certified without the little chip in it.

With iOS 7 they killed support for non-MFi charging cables. A cable that would charge your phone on iOS 6 wouldn't charge it anymore on iOS 7. It was a big fat annoying deal at the time. That was the death of the $1 Lightning cable because a cable isn't certified without the little chip in it.

Worth noting that this was a constant complaint with the USB-C connector on the initial iPad Pro. It still required the MFi chip for at least some things. A lot of reviews mentioned that and how annoying it was. (I don't know if that'll be the case this fall once we reach GM given how Apple is pushing disk access) However if Apple keeps the MFi requirement then most of the advantages people advocate for USB-C tend to disappear. I'll admit that, not having an USB-C based iPad Pro, I'm pretty unclear upon what devices need MFi and which don't.

That was the death of the $1 Lightning cable because a cable isn't certified without the little chip in it.

fwiw, that chip was cracked a while ago (like 7 years). most non certified cables work great in iOS 12.

That may be — although I still have big problems with most non certified cables/devices out of China. (Avoid Alibaba stuff that has lightning connectors)

However the critique was of the move to USB-C. Even if cable makers could easily add MFi counterfeit chips, do you think they'll start doing that for most USB-C cables and devices? Again to qualify things somewhat, it may well be Apple is being intelligent and dropping the MFi requirements for USB devices in iOS. We'll see as I've not heard anything about that in people writing about the betas. Yes this may just mean an Apple dongle than has a MFi chip but then how is that better than the current lightning to USB cables?

Moving on to September's announcements. Since Intel announced the Ice Lake details today, does everyone expect that 16" MBP to be using the. i7 1068G7 or will it be the cooler 1065G7? I have to imagine that Apple will be embracing this full line including for the MBA.

Moving on to September's announcements. Since Intel announced the Ice Lake details today, does everyone expect that 16" MBP to be using the. i7 1068G7 or will it be the cooler 1065G7? I have to imagine that Apple will be embracing this full line including for the MBA.

None of these processors is going to perform as well as the 6- and 8-core parts in the current MBP. If there's nothing else coming from Intel, I'd expect the new big MBP to use the same processors as the current 15". The question is what graphics it will use.

However if Apple keeps the MFi requirement then most of the advantages people advocate for USB-C tend to disappear.

If a cable requires a MFi chip, it's not a USB-C cable. That's not in the USB-C spec. USB-C Authentication is supposed to be interoperable between vendors using a standard protocol. One of the biggest benefits of USB-C is interoperability: if Apple does anything to confound that, no one can claim that their product is using USB-C.https://www.design-reuse.com/news/39610 ... ation.html

Moving on to September's announcements. Since Intel announced the Ice Lake details today, does everyone expect that 16" MBP to be using the. i7 1068G7 or will it be the cooler 1065G7? I have to imagine that Apple will be embracing this full line including for the MBA.

None of these processors is going to perform as well as the 6- and 8-core parts in the current MBP. If there's nothing else coming from Intel, I'd expect the new big MBP to use the same processors as the current 15". The question is what graphics it will use.

Agreed. I seriously doubt that Intel simply discontinued the H series processors. Much more likely is that it’s waiting until they can satisfy U and Y series demand before they ramp up H series chips.

Even if cable makers could easily add MFi counterfeit chips, do you think they'll start doing that for most USB-C cables and devices?

As stated earlier MFi will never make it to USB-C and I don't see Apple giving up control (and licensing revenue) just for the sake of the users, hence Lightning will be around for a long time.

My understanding is that the DRM on USB by Apple under the MFi program is part of IAP2. So not only has it made it to USB but it's been here for a while. Whether iOS/iPadOS 13 changes this is what seems unclear. Quoting from Apple's accessories documentation

To incorporate the iAP2 protocol into an accessory design, the accessory developer must be a member of the Apple MFi licensing program and integrate specific MFi hardware into the accessory. For further information about MFi, see https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi.

The problem is that Apple's been incredibly vague on all of this. Which is doubly annoying given the changes to iOS relating to things like USB storage. I have to imagine that Apple will simply ignore MFi/iAP2 for USB storage devices given the functionality they wish to offer. But that tells us nothing about other USB devices beyond the fact that apparently MIDI, keyboards and a few other things work through USB-C without using a MFi cable.

That said, I did find one discussion of USB devices and USB over at Cult of Mac that actually was helpful. Although it was primarily discussing devices connecting as storage devices, which we already knew would work. What it seems like is that devices that require custom driver code require MFi while things Apple's deemed supported (video, MIDI, keyboards, mice with assistive settings, storage) all seem to work regardless of MFi.

None of these processors is going to perform as well as the 6- and 8-core parts in the current MBP. If there's nothing else coming from Intel, I'd expect the new big MBP to use the same processors as the current 15". The question is what graphics it will use.

I know there's a big debate over whether Intel will release an H series or, for those who think it inconceivable they wouldn't, when they'll release it. I agree that it's hard to see Apple only offering the 16" with these chips. Assuming Intel releases an H series we might see new smaller physical margin MBPs with the new keyboards and simply the top end 16" announced but not available until December or January. If that's the plan (which makes lots of assumptions about Intel's yields) then I'd expect a later Mac event in October.

Even if cable makers could easily add MFi counterfeit chips, do you think they'll start doing that for most USB-C cables and devices?

As stated earlier MFi will never make it to USB-C and I don't see Apple giving up control (and licensing revenue) just for the sake of the users, hence Lightning will be around for a long time.

My understanding is that the DRM on USB by Apple under the MFi program is part of IAP2. So not only has it made it to USB but it's been here for a while. Whether iOS/iPadOS 13 changes this is what seems unclear. Quoting from Apple's accessories documentation

To incorporate the iAP2 protocol into an accessory design, the accessory developer must be a member of the Apple MFi licensing program and integrate specific MFi hardware into the accessory. For further information about MFi, see https://developer.apple.com/programs/mfi.

The problem is that Apple's been incredibly vague on all of this. Which is doubly annoying given the changes to iOS relating to things like USB storage. I have to imagine that Apple will simply ignore MFi/iAP2 for USB storage devices given the functionality they wish to offer. But that tells us nothing about other USB devices beyond the fact that apparently MIDI, keyboards and a few other things work through USB-C without using a MFi cable.

That said, I did find one discussion of USB devices and USB over at Cult of Mac that actually was helpful. Although it was primarily discussing devices connecting as storage devices, which we already knew would work. What it seems like is that devices that require custom driver code require MFi while things Apple's deemed supported (video, MIDI, keyboards, mice with assistive settings, storage) all seem to work regardless of MFi.

Then there's everything else-- if Apple doesn't bundle a driver for it, the only way for your device to talk to an app or an app to talk to your device is to be an iAP2 device. And that means MFi, and also means your device isn't going to be compatible with anything else.

My understanding is that the DRM on USB by Apple under the MFi program is part of IAP2. So not only has it made it to USB but it's been here for a while.

Has it? Are/Were there any usb cables that have Apple DRM build into it?

Lightning has a USB mode which most of the peripherals use but require the MFi chip. So there's a bit of unclarity in our discussion about USB connectors and USB protocols. (Primarily my fault I'll confess) So far as I know there's not an USB-C only connector using device that uses IAP2 beyond presumably the pencil although I may be wrong in that. I did search Amazon though and I couldn't find any unique iPad Pro peripherals. I confess I don't know if lightning peripherals will work on a newer iPad Pro with the female/female lighting adaptor and a USB-C to lighting cord. (My Pro is the pre-USB version)